Business

Apple Has Now Sold 25 Billion Songs in iTunes Store

Apple announced Wednesday that customers have purchased 25 billion songs from the iTunes store.

The 25 billionth song purchased was "Monkey Drums" by Chase Buch and it was bought by a man in Germany who will receive an iTunes gift card worth about $13,500.

"We are grateful to our users whose passion for music over the past 10 years has made iTunes the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. Cue added that iTunes users now download an average of more than 15,000 songs per minute through the service.

Apple launched the iTunes music store in 2003 and it took a little more than two years to sell one billion songs and another four years after that to hit the 10 billion song mark.

While 25 billion songs is certainly an impressive number — the equivalent of more than three songs for every man, woman and child on the planet — it still pales in comparison to the number of apps that have been downloaded. More than 40 billion apps have been downloaded from Apple's App Store to date, though of course many of these are free.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.